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California Air Resources Board News Clips for November 29, 2010. 


This is a service of the California Air Resources Board’s Office
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individual websites to view some of the following news articles.


GREEN ENERGY

Capital Region Leads State In Clean-Tech Job Growth, Study Says.
Clean-tech companies in the Sacramento region now employ more
workers than the local agricultural sector, underscoring the
importance of the fledgling industry's role to the area's
economy. In a report released today, the Green Capital Alliance,
which promotes local green industry, said Sacramento has led the
state in clean-tech job growth during the past 13 years and now
employs more than 13,000 workers. Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/11/29/v-print/3217524/capital-region-leads-state-in.html

Obama Administration Gives Billions In Stimulus Money Without
Environmental Safeguards. In the name of job creation and clean
energy, the Obama administration has doled out about $2 billion
in stimulus money to some of the nation's biggest polluters while
granting them exemptions from a basic form of environmental
oversight, a Center for Public Integrity investigation has found.
Posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/28/AR2010112804379_pf.html

AIR POLLUTION 

To Clear Up Air Quality, Hong Kong Looks to the Sea. The most
potent proof of Hong Kong’s long and abundant maritime history
is, increasingly, the ubiquitous haze that blurs the city’s
skyline. In this, the world’s third-busiest container port, after
Singapore and Shanghai, according to the Hong Kong Marine
Department, commercial tankers, ferries and fishing boats exhale
noxious fumes into air that already, by the World Health
Organization’s standards, is healthy only 41 days of the year.
Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/business/energy-environment/29iht-rbogship.html?src=busln

Is State Being Burned By Woodstoves? Clean air officials in
Northern California were startled earlier this year to learn that
a county just 200 miles north in Oregon has landed $900,000 in
federal stimulus money so that residents can trade in their old,
smoky wood-burning stoves for cleaner models. But no such
stimulus money is flowing to anywhere in California suffering
from wintertime air pollution from wood-burning stoves and
fireplaces, which is odd considering the recent spell of cold
weather. Posted. http://www.dailydemocrat.com/news/ci_16732865

Holiday Traditions Can Affect Air Quality. The Thanksgiving
holiday weekend can have poor air quality due to high particle
concentrations primarily from residential wood burning according
to the Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District. "Combining
weather conditions and an increase of wood burning during the
holiday weekend can create poor air quality which contributes to
health problems," stated Mat Ehrhardt, executive director.
Posted. http://www.dailydemocrat.com/news/ci_16709440

UC RIVERSIDE: Project Studies Unique Hybrid Tugboat. The tale of
the Carolyn Dorothy almost reads like a children's book story
line for the green generation.  She's the little tugboat in the
harbor that could. Only she did by emitting 73 percent less soot
emissions, 51 percent less smog-causing nitrogen oxides and 27
percent less carbon dioxide. UC Riverside researchers have the
numbers to prove it. Posted.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_tugboat29.3f2eae3.html

Air District Eyeing Air Quality During Cold Season. A lot of
people in the Bay Area had their fireplaces going Thanksgiving
night and that did a job on air quality. While it was OK to burn
a fire Friday, authorities preferred people wait until the
weekend. When the temperature drops, the firewood burns. That is
the plan for the Wiggs family over the Thanksgiving weekend. With
a bunch of out-of-town relatives visiting San Rafael, the holiday
would not be the same without a crackling fire. Posted.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=weather&id=7811396

Agency's Success Presents New Challenges – Jackson. With U.S. EPA
taking intense criticism from Republicans and businesses,
Administrator Lisa Jackson said today her 40-year-old agency is
battling a new problem: Americans are taking a healthy
environment for granted. When EPA was created in 1970,
Cleveland's Cuyahoga River was so polluted that it caught fire.
Pittsburgh and Los Angeles were choking on smog on a daily basis.
And the widespread use of DDT and other toxic chemicals was
killing off bald eagles -- the very symbol of the United States.
Posted. http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/11/29/1

CLIMATE CHANGE

Wind Seems Knocked Out Of Obama's Climate Agenda. The fight over
U.S. environmental policy will shift next year as Republicans
take control of the House of Representatives, leaving the Obama
administration chasing smaller victories in the effort to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions. What's dead for now is the ambitious
climate bill that President Obama had backed, which sought to
commit the U.S. to reduce industrial pollution 17% from 2005
levels by 2020. Posted.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/environment/2010-11-29-climatepolicy29_ST_N.htm

U.S. Carbon Trading Centers on California. Product Launches Set
for the State as Emissions Exchanges Gear Up to Compete in Global
Efforts. California will become the next test site for emissions
trading in the U.S. as exchanges line up new climate-related
markets in the state, following the shelving of a national
cap-and-trade plan to cut greenhouse gases. Three exchange groups
are preparing product launches for California after voters
endorsed the state's 2006 climate law in a referendum earlier
this month. Supporters believe California will breathe new life
into a U.S. carbon-trading market that has fallen dormant after a
federal program was shelved this summer and interest cooled in
other regional initiatives. Posted.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730304575632961052313910.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Sandy, White Beaches and a 'Toxic' Issue Confront Negotiators as
Cancun Talks Begin. To hear climate change negotiators describe
it, this week's U.N. global warming summit in Cancun, Mexico, is
shaping up like a confab of homebuilders. Delegates say they are
"laying foundations," setting up "frameworks" and installing the
"building blocks" for a future treaty.  They might also need a
bomb shelter. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/11/29/29climatewire-sandy-white-beaches-and-a-toxic-issue-confro-40061.html?pagewanted=print

Companies Adopt Green Policies on Their Own. London — While
politicians bicker over international action on global warming,
many companies are taking the lead and cutting greenhouse gas
emissions on their own. While such efforts are unlikely to be
enough without strong incentives and regulation from governments,
environmentalists are encouraged by how seriously some in the
private sector are taking climate change. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/business/global/29iht-rboguk.html?_r=1&src=busln&pagewanted=print

How to Change the Global Energy Conversation. Forcing countries
to agree to emissions caps will never work, argue Ted Nordhaus
and Michael Shellenberger. Instead, they say, the focus should be
on technology innovations. It's time for a rethink on climate
change. For two decades, world leaders have been trying—and
failing—to hammer out a workable deal on global warming. Posted.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704312504575618972157288244.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Even When Frozen, Soils Get Busy Emitting CO2. Microbes have long
done the world's dirty work. They gobble up oil spills. They
defend our guts against disease. And even in rugged northern
latitudes, hosts of bacteria filter through the soil, feeding on
falling leaves and decay, freeing carbon and nutrients for each
spring's renewal. For a long time, scientists thought the
essential role played by soil bacteria in the northern carbon
cycle was purely seasonal: During summer, heat-loving bugs would
tear through leaf litter and waste with a frenzy, multiplying
rapidly. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/11/29/4

VEHICLES

New Hybrid Buses Arriving In Peninsula Communities. New hybrid
buses are joining the fleet of the Santa Clara Valley
Transportation Authority (VTA) and gradually hitting the streets
of Peninsula communities. Last month, the first nine
diesel-electric hybrid buses — each costing $650,000 — were
unveiled on VTA bus line 66, which connects San Jose and
Milpitas. Since then, another 20 buses have been delivered. The
hybrids are now being used on bus lines 23 and 68, which connect
Cupertino and Gilroy with San Jose. Posted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/inthepeninsula/detail?entry_id=77893

Triac, An Electric Car Made In Salinas, Getting Ready To Hit The
Streets. Is there a Triac in your future? Maybe -- if your
conscience has evolved to a deep shade of green and you have
$25,000 to spare on a locally manufactured, three-wheeled gasless
electric vehicle with a 100-mile range. I drove one around Los
Gatos the other day with Mike Ryan, president of Green Vehicles,
the Salinas company that makes them. A prototype, one of just a
dozen made so far, it had a stick shift that will be replaced in
the upcoming Triac 2.0 with an automatic transmission. Posted.
http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_16693879?nclick_check=1

DOWNEY: Cars 99 Percent Cleaner Than 1960s Models. Here's
something you don't see every day: An environmental group is
praising cars, instead of denouncing them as the source of much
of what is wrong with society today. Environment California
recently released a study that found cars are 99 percent cleaner
than they were 40-some years ago. The typical automobile that
rolled off new-car lots in the 1960s coughed up 1 ton of air
pollution every 100,000 miles. Today, in California, the typical
new car generates 10 pounds of pollution over the same distance.
And it shows, the report said. Posted.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/columnists/downey/article_a3702dec-2bbd-53ed-bd70-9383c0332b5b.html

Obama Transportation Emission Control Initiatives. As I begin
writing a book compiling my Examiner articles from the past two
years coinciding with Obama’s first two years in office there is
one story I recently picked up that has received little popular
press coverage.  According to one of my regional transportation
air quality contacts President Obama has authorized development
of Tier 3 Tailpipe Out Transportation Emission Standards for
automobile and truck makers under 12,500 pounds loaded weight.
Posted.
http://www.examiner.com/environmental-policy-in-national/obama-transportation-emission-control-initiatives

Cali Launches VRRRM Program. No, that's not the sound of a Toyota
when you apply the breaks. VRRRM is short for Vehicle Repair,
Retirement and Replacement for Motorists, a program sponsored by
the Foundation for California Community Colleges and launched in
the State this weekend, VRRRM calls for repairing, retiring, and
replacing around 17,000 vehicles considered to be polluting the
atmosphere, in an attempt to remove some 850 tons of pollutants
from California.s air within the next three years. Posted.
http://www.autoevolution.com/news/cali-launches-vrrrm-program-27172.html

As Expected, the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach
signed off last week on the first update to their 4-year-old
Clean Air Action Plan. The updated plan was approved during a
joint meeting of the two harbor commissions. Coming off a
successful effort to cut truck emissions at the two ports, the
updated plan turns its focus toward ships and trains. Shipping
lines will be encouraged to bring their cleanest ships to
Southern California and the railroads to use their newest
locomotives. Posted.
http://www.cunninghamreport.com/news_item.php?id=1386

UC RIVERSIDE: Project Studies Unique Hybrid Tugboat. The tale of
the Carolyn Dorothy almost reads like a children's book story
line for the green generation. She's the little tugboat in the
harbor that could. Only she did by emitting 73 percent less soot
emissions, 51 percent less smog-causing nitrogen oxides and 27
percent less carbon dioxide. UC Riverside researchers have the
numbers to prove it. Posted.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_tugboat29.3f2eae3.html

Market Pressure Pushed GM To Produce Volt. More than a decade
after pulling the plug on the $1 billion EV1 electric car
project, General Motors Co. is back in the game with the launch
of its Chevrolet Volt, an extended-range plug-in car. The Volt
decision came after executives saw the praise being heaped on
Toyota for its Prius gas-electric hybrid. But GM executives did
not want to mimic Toyota by making a hybrid, nor did they want to
repeat the failure of the EV1 by going purely electric. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2010/11/29/15

OPINION

LOIS HENRY: Regulating The Truth And Other Hot Air. There I was
last week, minding my own business (well, sort of), when this
morsel of an e-mail popped up from the California Air Resources
Board. CARB will have a workshop Dec. 1 to discuss a new
regulation "Prohibiting False Statements." It goes on to read:
"The contemplated regulation would forbid dishonest statements
offered to the Board or to its staff. Such a regulation would be
especially beneficial because the Board's rulemaking and rule
implementation relies on accurate technical, scientific, and
economic data submitted to the Board." That is so rich it almost
makes my teeth hurt. Posted.
http://www.bakersfield.com/news/local/x1263267080/LOIS-HENRY-Regulating-the-truth-and-other-hot-air

A Quiet Orinda Member Sounds Off On Leaf Blowers. JoAnneh Nagler
is a Burlingame resident and member of Quiet Orinda, a group
seeking to ban the use of leafblowers. Here, she explains her
reasoning for asking for such a ban. The news that Orinda's City
Council dismissed the issue of prolific leaf blower use in their
community is not surprising.  As more progressive cities have
instituted bans and regulations, Orinda, sadly, sidestepped the
health hazards by voting down any attempts to regulate. Posted.
http://lamorinda.patch.com/articles/a-quiet-orinda-member-sounds-off-on-leaf-blowers

Health Challenge: Climate Change. In Jerry Brown's new
administration, the state Department of Public Health has an
opportunity and an obligation to help drive home the implications
of climate change. As outgoing Gov. Schwarzenegger has explained,
global warming doesn't affect only penguins and polar bears. He
points to air pollution-related impact on the health of valley
children who suffer from asthma. Posted.
http://www.modbee.com/2010/11/28/1448575/health-challenge-climate-change.html#ixzz16gwIwZ5k

BLOGS

Western Climate Initiative Offers Hope Despite Federal Government
Paralysis. Canada committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
(GHGs) by 6% below 1990 levels by 2012 under the Kyoto protocol.
Instead, Canada’s emissions have increased by 24%. The Harper
government ties its climate action to the US, which didn’t even
sign on to Kyoto. There was some hope for legislative action in
both countries when Obama was elected, but that hope sank with
the most recent US election of climate deniers and the unelected
Canadian senate’s obliteration of the House of Representative’s
climate bill. Posted.
http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/earthmatters/2010/11/29/western-climate-initiative-offers-hope-despite-federal-government

The "Green New Deal" meets the "New Austerity" - Making Clean
Energy Cheaper. A little less than 18 months ago many in the
United States were heralding what appeared to be the beginning of
the "Green New Deal" at the national level. It now appears that
this ushering in of what I will refer to as "Green New Deal 1.0"
was at best premature as efforts to create a national green house
gas cap-and-trade regime and related clean energy measures at the
federal level have stalled in the face of the "New Austerity";
indeed, there is a real risk that federal and state elections in
the U.S. next week could result in a reversal of significant
existing clean energy policies at the state and federal levels,
most notably policies in California that mirror Green New Deal
1.0. Posted.
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/11/29/the_green_new_deal_meets_the_new_austerity_-_makin/

California's Year In Climate Action. So, what's the state of
California done since the last UN conference on climate change in
Copenhagen, a year ago? Let's take a (brief) (but semi-detailed)
look. The one most people have heard of is the one the most
people did: defeat proposition 23, which would have suspended AB
32 greenhouse gas reduction efforts, notably, carbon trading.  We
care about that because California's become the US center of
efforts to trade and - through trading, reduce - carbon...in the
absence of federal action: Posted.
http://www.scpr.org/blogs/environment/2010/11/28/californias-year-climate-action/

Clearing the Air at Cancun Climate Summit. As COP-16 begins in
Cancun, Mexico, world leaders need to understand that global
warming isn’t only about carbon dioxide. In a world that is
stepping close to a steep and dangerous precipice, doing more to
reduce non-CO2 climate change contributors such as methane, black
carbon soot, tropospheric ozone, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
might help head global warming off at the pass, according to
Professors Veerabhadran Ramanathan of the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography, and David G. Victor at the University of
California, San Diego. Posted.
http://www.triplepundit.com/2010/11/clearing-air-cancun-climate-summit/

California's Year in Climate Action. So, what's the state of
California done since the last UN conference on climate change in
Copenhagen, a year ago? Let's take a (brief) (but semi-detailed)
look. The one most people have heard of is the one the most
people did: defeat proposition 23, which would have suspended AB
32 greenhouse gas reduction efforts, notably, carbon trading.  We
care about that because California's become the US center of
efforts to trade and - through trading, reduce - carbon...in the
absence of federal action. Posted.
http://www.scpr.org/blogs/environment/2010/11/28/californias-year-climate-action/